Game details

On its face, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm sounds like the most superfluous prequel imaginable. The original game told the tale of teenage duo Chloe and Max as they investigated the disappearance of Chloe’s best friend in the Pacific Northwestern town of Arcadia Bay. In the process, the pair rediscovered their own lost friendship and the many unseen layers to the people around them. Oh, and player character Max just happened to be able to rewind time.

Before the Storm rewinds time, too—to three years before Max’s reality-bending and ultimately heartbreaking return. This time you play as Chloe to unravel her relationship with Rachel Amber, the girl whose vanishing kicked off the first game.

Further Reading

What made me so tentative about Before the Storm’s premise is that Life Is Strange was full of revelations. By the end of the original game’s five chapters, we know Rachel’s fate, how Chloe went from mathlete to punk in the years since Max moved away and back again, and just who can be trusted in Arcadia Bay. Life Is Strange was an adventure game in the Telltale vein, putting characters and choices first. After all that, a prequel featuring much of that same cast didn’t seem like it would provide much opportunity to learn or room to grow.

Breaking free

Having played the first of Before the Storm’s three episodes, my prediction holds true. Most everybody’s an a-hole. Chloe’s would-be stepdad is a militant misogynist, as expected. School bully Victoria Chase is... still school bully Victoria Chase. From the jump, nearly every NPC questions, confronts, and otherwise dismisses Chloe on subjects ranging from whether she knows as much about cars as she says, to if she deserves to attend the private school she has been ditching.

Here’s the thing: it totally works. While most of the non-player characters can’t show their more complicated sides, Chloe has plenty of room for growth.

This isn’t the confidently furious rebel Max connects with in 2013. In 2010, when the prequel takes place, Chloe is only just learning how angry she is at the world and how to express it. So she starts the episode thinking that sneaking into an “overage” concert is the height of rebellion. Yet when the most popular girl in school, Rachel, takes a sudden interest in her, Chloe drops everything just to get in her good graces.

Ah, yes. Sounds like things get much happier in the next episodes.

There is a great deal of angst in this game.

You can examine. You can interact. Sometimes you can talk. It's one of those adventure games.

Before the Storm one-ups Life Is Strange in one respect: the graphics are much smoother.

Max isn't around in Before the Storm, but her absence is felt.

Younger Chloe isn't completely different from her 2013 self.

"Backtalk Challenges" are the prequel's defining new mechanic.

Chloe playing D&D is my favorite scene in the whole episode...

Finally, we get to meet Rachel Amber in person.

Sometimes it's what you gotta do.

Dialogue choices help frame the tone of Rachel and Chloe's relationship.

Their budding friendship is jarring at first, but it should quickly make sense even to those who never played Life Is Strange. Before the Storm swiftly lays out just how alone Chloe is after her father’s sudden death and Max’s subsequent ghosting. Meanwhile, the prequel leans heavily into themes of sexual awakening (depending on your dialogue choices, of course). The first game only hinted at these, but, to me at least, Rachel is clearly primed to be Chloe’s first love. This lends much more weight to Chloe’s reciprocated interest in Rachel.

Rachel represents a lot to our protagonist—most of it unsaid but subtly teased out with genuine-sounding teen angst. Toward the end of the episode, when Rachel clearly wants to be left alone, Chloe takes it personally. She says she understands, that she knows how hard she is to be around, and that Rachel would be better off just leaving. It’s exactly the kind of self-absorbed, self-deprecating, insulating statement I know I said or thought a thousand times in high school.

Many layers, not all in one place

Rachel, to her credit, doesn’t let go of her own problems to soothe Chloe’s worries. She gets pissed and leaves, acting like a real person rather than a mere sounding board for Chloe’s baggage. That characterization is vital to understanding why Rachel is someone Chloe comes to care about.

In Life Is Strange, most of the returning characters are flatter than the multi-layered representations shown in the original Life Is Strange. Rachel, who wasn’t seen in the previous game, doesn’t run into this problem.

But even the rest of Arcadia Bay’s flatness is put to good use. Before the Storm doesn’t have Max’s time-rewind mechanics, but it’s not all straightforward discussions, either. The prequel includes unfortunately named “Backtalk Challenges,” which let Chloe roast the obnoxious townies around her.

Backtalk is basically insult swordfighting in the tradition of Monkey Island but slightly more serious. Chloe can turn characters’ words against them by picking insulting dialogue options that reflect the last thing they said. They’re timed and, in most cases, very silly. No teenager in the real world has ever been as eloquent at smack talk as Chloe Price.

Yet... I kind of liked the exchanges. Chloe puts up with a lot of crap from the one-dimensionally awful people around her. The Backtalk Challenges serve as a good pressure release valve against all that built-up crap. Her mother’s boyfriend, Dave, for instance, insists on explaining how to fix a car engine—despite Chloe repeatedly explaining that her father already taught her. So when Dave tries to lay down even more life advice, Chloe can decide she has had enough with some exquisite rejoinders.

The challenges basically “game-ify” Chloe’s growing realization that most authority figures can’t force her to do anything. She’s growing from the wannabe punk at the start of Before the Storm to the freewheeling petty criminal shown at the start of Life Is Strange.

Necessary or not?

I suspect there will be consequences to that evolution. This first episode already hints at our heroine getting wrapped up in the more genuinely dangerous criminal element of Arcadia Bay—not to mention a few folks who seem like they could become dangerous just over having their pride hurt by a 16-year-old girl. But helping Chloe own some mansplaining micro-tyrant with a terrible mustache is still gratifying.

Since Before the Storm is a prequel, however, I’m more interested in watching Rachel and Chloe’s relationship develop than worrying about any real physical danger. I loved Life Is Strange for the way it peeled away at and built upon its characters, and Rachel and Chloe’s interactions provide plenty of room for more of that in Before the Storm.

I wasn’t sold on the premise of a Life Is Strange prequel at first, but Rachel and Chloe capture the series’ uneasy, us-against-the-world energy and melodrama. The Backtalk Challenges could stand to be a little less scripted, and I’m not as sold on the character interactions, aside from Rachel. That said, so far, Before the Storm is a thematically appropriate way to fill in the original game’s missing pieces.

The Good:

Dialogue feels genuine, for a bunch of rebellious teens

Chloe and Rachel’s relationship touches on themes the first game glossed over

“Backtalk Challenges” are goofy but often satisfying

The Bad:

Some of the “backtalk” dialogue feels too scripted

Most of the supporting cast’s development can't start until Life Is Strange

The Ugly:

It’s not always clear if Chloe is trying too hard to seem like a rebel or if the game is trying too hard to make her seem that way.

Verdict: Before the Storm is at its best when it focuses on the untold elements of Life Is Strange. So far, those moments capture the spirit of the original, but I’m anxious to see if it can hold up as the timelines converge. Buy it.

26 Reader Comments

I adored Life is Strange. It came right out of nowhere and hit me like a freight train, with emotional weight and storytelling excellence I've rarely ever seen in videogames combined with a very well-executed and balanced central gameplay mechanic that itself was central thematically and as a storytelling tool.

I am still skeptical of this prequel, though. It isn't made by Dontnod, it's retreading ground, and I just don't see how it can have the emotional gut-punch finisher that made the first game so good when the ending is a foregone conclusion.

You use phrases like "budding friendship" and "[Chloe] says she understands," but actually in both those cases the player can make choices that turn it into a budding crush or a total lack of acceptance on her part for Rachel's needs. Which kinda proves your point about room for evolution.

Generally you can play the game as Chloe being complete self-centered, as her still being the sweet, sympathetic girl she once was, or as something in between.

I really liked Life is Strange, but it was the time-travel that I really liked. This game just doesn't really interest me without the time travel mechanic.

Yeah I should have mentioned that, too. Life is Strange worked in large part because of that really interesting mechanic, where you could rewind to "fix" things you thought you did wrong, but in the end those "better" choices might end up screwing you. It made for a perilous balancing act and the way the time travel clinched the story together at the end made for a truly heinous dilemma as a player.

I am still skeptical of this prequel, though. It isn't made by Dontnod, it's retreading ground, and I just don't see how it can have the emotional gut-punch finisher that made the first game so good when the ending is a foregone conclusion.

And, while this is kind of beating a dead horse by now, not the original voice actors. Ashley Burch (Chloe) was not available due to the voice actor strike. It seems too weird to have a different voice for the character (at least in my opinion).

I am still skeptical of this prequel, though. It isn't made by Dontnod, it's retreading ground, and I just don't see how it can have the emotional gut-punch finisher that made the first game so good when the ending is a foregone conclusion.

And, while this is kind of beating a dead horse by now, not the original voice actors. Ashley Burch (Chloe) was not available due to the voice actor strike. It seems too weird to have a different voice for the character (at least in my opinion).

Oh, well now my interest is quite thoroughly dead. Not even the same VA as the original for the central character? Nah. That's before even considering that Ashley Burch is a very, very talented actress.

Oddly enough, the most jarring change is David. Everyone else's voice acting I can put up with but David's VA felt too different.

Also, no mention of the music? It's insanely on point.

Unfortunately the PC version is suffering massive controller issues, either not working or thinking an Xbox controller is half a PS4 controller, so I haven't been able to play the game again.

Another annoying thing is that there doesn't seem to be save files, so you can't have multiple playthroughs going at once. In LiS I had two files with opposite choices picked going each time an episode came out.

As a huge fan of Life is Strange, I too was skeptical about just how well Deck Nine could pull this off. As well as Ashly Burch not being Chloe's VA.

But I have to say, they nailed it. If one of the major things you liked about LIS were the feels, BTS delivers. Chloe's new VA bugged me a lot at first, but within 15 minutes I no longer cared. By the end, Rhianna DeVries felt just as much Authentically Chloe's Voice to me as Ashly Burch. Which I honestly didn't think was possible. (Ashly personally coached her replacement and it shows.)

Also: I have to second the comment about the music being spectacularly on point.

Secondary Also: there is an optional DnD game Chloe can play which thoroughly exceeds expectations and which, depending on your interests, may by itself make the purchase worth it.

I'm the biggest fan of the original Life is Strange that I know (in real life). 5 purchased copies (Steam, PS4 PSN, XB1 XBL, Physical Limited Edition PS4, Physical XB1). I really really loved it, and I went into this knowing I wanted to give it the best chance I could, but also that there's absolutely no way it can live up to the original for me.

I was right, but given that I knew it couldn't possibly live up I feel like they've done as solid a job as I could ask for. They're selling me on the relationship between Rachel Amber and Chloe (and "the feels" in general), which is what matters most to me here. I have quite a few critiques, though. First: "Backtalk" isn't all that interesting in the place of regular dialogue choices. It's certainly no replacement for time travel. I don't mind not having the time travel as the story is what struck me in LiS, but the Backtalk challenges feel forced to me. I also don't really feel like I have real agency as Chloe because I already know who she is. She's much more clearly defined than Max was when I was playing LiS, so I find myself trying to choose what I think Chloe *would* do, rather than the original's feeling of choosing what I thought *my* Max *should* do.

I'm a little confused as to how the timing works on this, though. If this takes place in 2010 vs 2013, we can't possibly get to anywhere near the most intense parts of the Chloe & Rachel Amber relationship (unless I'm missing things). She went missing in 2013, so there's a *lot* of ground to cover here that it seems would be a bit much for 3 episodes. So if we're not going to be led up to Rachel Amber going missing… what could possibly happen that won't feel incredibly overwrought and extreme in the face for a town like Arcadia Bay (pre-Max's superpowered events)?

I actually just completed my first play-through of the original Life is Strange, and really loved it. I'll definitely go back and play through it again and try different choices.

I'm still skeptical of this prequel though, after hearing about the VA and developer changes. Plus, obviously no time travel so presumably no rewinding all the dialogs to try out different responses (large part of what made Life is Strange interesting to me in the first place).

Maybe I'll pick it up later when all the episodes are out or something, not sure yet...

I really liked Life is Strange, but it was the time-travel that I really liked. This game just doesn't really interest me without the time travel mechanic.

Yeah I should have mentioned that, too. Life is Strange worked in large part because of that really interesting mechanic, where you could rewind to "fix" things you thought you did wrong, but in the end those "better" choices might end up screwing you. It made for a perilous balancing act and the way the time travel clinched the story together at the end made for a truly heinous dilemma as a player.

Not sure about anyone else, but before I got halfway through Life is Strange, I stopped using the rewind mechanic altogether...when a choice came up, I stuck with my first one.

I really liked Life is Strange, but it was the time-travel that I really liked. This game just doesn't really interest me without the time travel mechanic.

Yeah I should have mentioned that, too. Life is Strange worked in large part because of that really interesting mechanic, where you could rewind to "fix" things you thought you did wrong, but in the end those "better" choices might end up screwing you. It made for a perilous balancing act and the way the time travel clinched the story together at the end made for a truly heinous dilemma as a player.

Not sure about anyone else, but before I got halfway through Life is Strange, I stopped using the rewind mechanic altogether...when a choice came up, I stuck with my first one.

I did the opposite. I used rewind all the time even for the small unimportant shit just because I really wanted to see all the various responses and outcomes.

I played it and finished it. I loved Life is Strange, and Before the Storm is brilliantly well done despite the issues it has (VA strike affected it most). However, they compensated for it.

Deck Nine I suspect had a lot of help from dontnod (remember, dontnod is busy doing a Life Is Strange Season 2 - not really a sequel since it features new characters and new location, so they weren't available to do BtS even if they wanted to).

And the time-travel mechanic is tied to Max - without Max, no time travel. Thus keeping with the spirit of the game, it makes sense Chloe cannot "rewind".

Another annoying thing is that there doesn't seem to be save files, so you can't have multiple playthroughs going at once. In LiS I had two files with opposite choices picked going each time an episode came out.

It might be different for different systems, but on PC LiS had THREE save game slots, as has BiS. What is strange is that you have to go to options (I think -- currently not on my gaming rig) to select the save game.

Not sure about anyone else, but before I got halfway through Life is Strange, I stopped using the rewind mechanic altogether...when a choice came up, I stuck with my first one.

Some choices only became available after going through a dialogue once. (Max heard the other person say something and after a rewind she used that knowledge to offer new choices). Rewind was an important part of playing LiS. Playing without rewind is like playing a game like Street Fighter without using power combos -- it can be done, but you're limiting your experience.

I'm a little confused as to how the timing works on this, though. If this takes place in 2010 vs 2013, we can't possibly get to anywhere near the most intense parts of the Chloe & Rachel Amber relationship (unless I'm missing things). She went missing in 2013, so there's a *lot* of ground to cover here that it seems would be a bit much for 3 episodes. So if we're not going to be led up to Rachel Amber going missing… what could possibly happen that won't feel incredibly overwrought and extreme in the face for a town like Arcadia Bay (pre-Max's superpowered events)?

BtS is not about Rachel going missing. That would be a bad choice, as the game would end without a resolution. Chloe doesn't know what happened to Rachel until late in LiS.

As to what could happen... well, the end of episode 1 surely ended on a dramatic note. While we know that Arcadia Bay will be left standing and many of the characters have to be around for LiS, there sure is room for some drama.

I'm probably in the small minority that has not yet played the first game, and I must say, I liked the first chapter. Now I can imagine it being something like when I read The Davinci Code and then got blown away by Angels and Demons (I think it is the better game), but if that's how this one compares to the first one, I think I'll be in for a treat.

I don't understand the love for Life is Strange. I found it absolutely terrible in every aspect. The characters are horrible people (especially Chloe), the dialog is atrocious, and your choices don't matter in the end. Even the voice acting was bad, but this could very easily be attributed to the awful writing (which comes off like a 40 year old tried to write a story about high-schoolers).

Made a bad choice? Just rewind until you make the right one!

The characters all fit the typical "High School drama" mold; rich kid who's an asshole; trendy Tumblr-grrl who listens to indie music (Chloe), has blue hair and piercings, and is an all around terrible person because her dad died; the popular girl who's mean for no real reason; the main character is quirky and shy, loves photography, is really smart (yet really dumb)... the list goes on.

Oh yea, and I love collecting bottles for 20 minutes! But, seriously, I will never understand the love for this game.

I actually just completed my first play-through of the original Life is Strange, and really loved it. I'll definitely go back and play through it again and try different choices.

I'm still skeptical of this prequel though, after hearing about the VA and developer changes. Plus, obviously no time travel so presumably no rewinding all the dialogs to try out different responses (large part of what made Life is Strange interesting to me in the first place).

Maybe I'll pick it up later when all the episodes are out or something, not sure yet...

There's a solution to that last bit, when you complete an episode you can go back and replay individual scenes to get the "REPLACEMENT_FOR_MAXS_PHOTOS" bonus objectives. But of course, you can also use this to try new things.

I don't understand the love for Life is Strange. I found it absolutely terrible in every aspect. The characters are horrible people (especially Chloe), the dialog is atrocious, and your choices don't matter in the end. Even the voice acting was bad, but this could very easily be attributed to the awful writing (which comes off like a 40 year old tried to write a story about high-schoolers).

Made a bad choice? Just rewind until you make the right one!

The characters all fit the typical "High School drama" mold; rich kid who's an asshole; trendy Tumblr-grrl who listens to indie music (Chloe), has blue hair and piercings, and is an all around terrible person because her dad died; the popular girl who's mean for no real reason; the main character is quirky and shy, loves photography, is really smart (yet really dumb)... the list goes on.

Oh yea, and I love collecting bottles for 20 minutes! But, seriously, I will never understand the love for this game.

Having the game described as The Butterfly Effect set in high school but with more angst and drama informed me of what to expect. I assume, as with most forms of entertainment, it's not for everyone and there's usually some self selection for reviews going in because "why play something you know you won't like?" Although, my drama tolerance is pretty low, Star Trek: The Next Generation is my general scale for an acceptable level of drama.

Another annoying thing is that there doesn't seem to be save files, so you can't have multiple playthroughs going at once. In LiS I had two files with opposite choices picked going each time an episode came out.

It might be different for different systems, but on PC LiS had THREE save game slots, as has BiS. What is strange is that you have to go to options (I think -- currently not on my gaming rig) to select the save game.

Ah, that must be it! Glad to know there's a way to do save files. Once the controller problems are fixed, I'll do my opposite choice playthrough.

I'm a little confused as to how the timing works on this, though. If this takes place in 2010 vs 2013, we can't possibly get to anywhere near the most intense parts of the Chloe & Rachel Amber relationship (unless I'm missing things). She went missing in 2013, so there's a *lot* of ground to cover here that it seems would be a bit much for 3 episodes. So if we're not going to be led up to Rachel Amber going missing… what could possibly happen that won't feel incredibly overwrought and extreme in the face for a town like Arcadia Bay (pre-Max's superpowered events)?

BtS is not about Rachel going missing. That would be a bad choice, as the game would end without a resolution. Chloe doesn't know what happened to Rachel until late in LiS.

As to what could happen... well, the end of episode 1 surely ended on a dramatic note. While we know that Arcadia Bay will be left standing and many of the characters have to be around for LiS, there sure is room for some drama.

You're absolutely right. Following Rachel's disappearance would have been a bad choice. I think what I'm getting at is that I just don't know how well they can amp up the dramatic tension/stakes past where they already have and leave me actually buying that the events are sensible to have happened in Arcadia Bay.

I'm not saying it's impossible, I just think it's really not obvious that the room is there for such a story. If I had to choose I'd almost rather they deliberately eschew huge event drama for a smaller more intimate story, but the ending of Ep 1 seems to indicate they're not going to.

Shorter: They seem to really grok the feel of LiS and are emulating it particularly well. I'm just concerned that if they continue to adhere to that feel it'll have to lead to events that cause me to lose my suspension of disbelief within the world's sensibilities.

I actually just completed my first play-through of the original Life is Strange, and really loved it. I'll definitely go back and play through it again and try different choices.

I'm still skeptical of this prequel though, after hearing about the VA and developer changes. Plus, obviously no time travel so presumably no rewinding all the dialogs to try out different responses (large part of what made Life is Strange interesting to me in the first place).

Maybe I'll pick it up later when all the episodes are out or something, not sure yet...

There's a solution to that last bit, when you complete an episode you can go back and replay individual scenes to get the "REPLACEMENT_FOR_MAXS_PHOTOS" bonus objectives. But of course, you can also use this to try new things.

Thanks for the tip, I hadn't checked out the chapter replaying options yet. Really good stuff there, collectible mode is very nice for picking the stuff I missed and testing some other choices out. Also really cool that you can start a second or third save file from any completed point in the game if you don't want to play the early parts again.

Makes me like the game even more now, it really is awesome

I figure it's still gonna be worth another complete playthrough, to get the full impact and context of some of the choices and to do some things differently since I know how the first playthrough turned out.

Things I like:-They don't deify Rachel as a character. She wears her flaws on her sleeve, and like Chloe she has her own demons and some of her behaviors border on sociopathic.-Backtalk minigame - it's fine for what it is, even if the mechanic isn't as interesting puzzle wise as time travel. At least it's interesting, even if the actual challenges are at non-critical points thus far.-The two lead voice actresses, those specific performances are top notch.-Chloe's journal. Her reaction to Max is both "holy shit" and totally earned.-Steph, Mikey and Samantha. These minor characters aren't in the original, but they're interesting. I like the DnDesque campaign with Steph and Samantha's "You shut the fuck up" outburst in the backtalk challenge with Drew.-Choices seem to present the duality of Chloe, the person she was vs the person she'll be at the start of LiS. Choices that don't reflect on this duality are asking the relatively straightforward question "is Chloe into Rachel?" and letting the player fill in the blank left ambiguous (but strongly hinting that direction) in the original.

Things I dislike:-Burying future story content behind paywalls. Da fuck?-The scab voice actors (leads excluded). Scab David is especially grating.-There's not much to the current "puzzles" such as they are without the time travel. The game was never really "about" the puzzles anyway.-An extra bullet point for Denuvo encryption. That wasn't stated at the time of purchase (in fact they published that detail a day before launch).-3 episodes+1 tangentially related premium episode seems too short judging from the 1st act.

Overall: It's still a great product even if it's from a shitty publisher in a shitty industry. Unfortunately the industry being shit taints the game significantly (between the scabs and content paywall tiers, it's all over this release). At least Chloe doesn't get her drugs from premium priced loot crates.

I don't understand the love for Life is Strange. I found it absolutely terrible in every aspect. The characters are horrible people (especially Chloe), the dialog is atrocious, and your choices don't matter in the end. Even the voice acting was bad, but this could very easily be attributed to the awful writing (which comes off like a 40 year old tried to write a story about high-schoolers).

Made a bad choice? Just rewind until you make the right one!

The characters all fit the typical "High School drama" mold; rich kid who's an asshole; trendy Tumblr-grrl who listens to indie music (Chloe), has blue hair and piercings, and is an all around terrible person because her dad died; the popular girl who's mean for no real reason; the main character is quirky and shy, loves photography, is really smart (yet really dumb)... the list goes on.

Oh yea, and I love collecting bottles for 20 minutes! But, seriously, I will never understand the love for this game.

It's pretty simple, it's a game for those that are interested in drama, culture, relationship dynamics and art. Most other people need not apply. You should give it a shot after a couple of years, you might be pleasantly surprised.